Posted on 01/11/2014 6:37:08 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
A nationwide minimum wage of $12 per hour would shrink government, aid families, curb illegal immigration, spur high-tech investment, and boost GOP support among working-class voters, says Ron Unz, the California libertarian entrepreneur who wiped out his state’s Spanish-only K-12 classes.
The $12 wage would slash the huge taxpayer subsidies now given to companies that hire low-wage immigrants, and move tens of millions of Americans into the middle class and sharply reduce the 47 percent of the population who are now completely or partly dependent on federal handouts, Unz told The Daily Caller.
“Politics would be completely different… what you’re doing is reducing the 47 percent by 10 to 15 points and giving Republicans a chance to make their case about cutting government spending and reducing taxes,” he said.....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Minimum wage is full employment for illegals, who do as they please.
“If you define the value of a dollar as 1/12 hour of a minimum wage worker’s time, why wouldn’t other good adjust their dollar-denominated prices accordingly?’
They probably would, but it would take time, and you end up with the same situation, only the numbers are different. Of course, the minimum wage doest not define the value of the dollar.
It would make more sense to *lower* the minimum wage to $5 per hour. Then the illegal immigrants would have to compete at lower than $5 per hour. Raising the minimum wage to $12 per hour, an illegal immigrant could charge $10 per hour, and still be competitive.
No, we already have a problem with off-shoring. The stores are full of Chinese goods and 23% of our workforce is unemployed.
Raising the Minimum wage would hasten the off-shoring.
Instead, raise the import tariffs, so that it makes more sense to produce in America. That will increase jobs in America helping the unemployed. And once full employment is reached, then supply and demand will drive up the labor wage.
That would accomplish what he hopes to do with a $12 minimum wage, without losing more industries.
So what happens to those with more skilled jobs that are currently getting $12 an already? Should they start getting 15 an hour then?
But hey, it's something...Let's do something different even if it's wrong...What we are doing now is just sucking us down the drain anyway...
The ONLY solution is to ship out and keep out all illegals and let the supply/demand principle of labor work to bring wages up...But that option is forever gone...That's only works in a sovereign nation...
I'd rather be working class in 2014, than 1974. We're way better off.
Stockholm Syndrome. They’ve been the minority for so long, they crave it. Let’s win.
Employees are not paid what they are worth to a company. That is often impossible to determine anyway. What's a busboy worth to a restaurant? You can't operate one without them. But the wage is a function of supply and demand, and that market is distorted by millions of immigrants, both illegal and legal. And that market is only going to be more distorted in favor of employers if the Chamber of Commerce gets their way on "comprehensive immigration reform".
Exactly. And since we can't expect any relief on the immigration front, we unfortunately need a minimum wage.
slash the government hand outs and see what happens first. Then we can talk about adjusting the minimum wage..
A factory worker in China makes $1.36/hour. That's what the low skill/no skill worker is competing with. Workers need to be able to compete with workers from low wage countries by having skills that they don't have. And that's difficult to do because of the failure of US public schools.
If I could go back in time and talk to the founders as they were putting together the Constitution, I would argue very strongly for a provision stating: “Congress shall make no law regulating wages and prices, nor infringing upon the right of the people to freely contract the same among themselves.”
He needs to be asked why Obama delayed the employer mandate, if employers are an endless cash cow for social policy.
SO, answer this, for any who believe this will help. What about those professionals who make just a dollar or more an hour than this, who trained/attended college, etc.? Does this make everyone move up the scale? Who pays these higher salaries? We do. The burger-flipper making $12/hr starting wage means the cost of those burgers go way up, or there are less burger-flippers. If starting wages are at $12/hr, then it is necessary to move workers with tenure up the scale, as well. As it is, it is no longer fast food anyway, as these low information wage earners don’t have the skills to produce a product FAST. I have seen more and more incompetence creep into these places to the point that I seldom purchase “fast food”. I could go home and cook my own faster. All the while they are cracking dirty jokes, wiping their hands on their bodies, faces, etc. I cannot see rewarding poor service with higher wages.
With a minimum wage of $12/hour, I’ll be flipping my own hamburgers at home.
What an idiotic assertion from Unz.
In what fantasy world does a minimum wage hike result in anything other than increased unemployment and price inflation? It’s laughable to assert that you can change the value of a person’s labor via government dictat.
The moment an employer is faced with the prospect of having to hire people to perform $6 an hour labor for $12 an hour is precisely when said employer lays off the most useless employees, increases automation, and raises prices as much as the market will bear. Any “increase” in minimum wage is immediately offset due to basic economic necessity - the mythical increase in wages is necessarily offset by unemployment and price inflation.
Employers do not print money out of thin air, and hence will simply have to fire anyone who is incapable of producing more than $12 an hour for the company. A minimum wage hike would INCREASE the democratic voter base due to the simple fact that MORE Americans would become dependent upon the dole once the federal government priced them out of the labor market. THAT is why a minimum wage hike is such a core principle of liberal politics, it ensures a steady supply of dependency for the liberal plantation.
The newly created dependency-class of former workers would happily vote for any politician offering to raise welfare benefits (in response to the spike in price inflation) or tweak the minimum income levels for public assistance. Yet, Unz says the exact opposite will happen somehow, perhaps magically.
Unz has truly outdone himself this time. He’s not the brightest bulb in the box to begin with, and his heroic misinterpretations of basic reality have been fodder for the blog-sphere debates on a number of topics, but this level of idiocy is a new low for Ronny.
Here is the problem with $NN.00 minimum wage. It artificially inflates the value of a given or earned employment position. That in turn inflates the price of any given product or service that is being offered by said wage/position. That in turn robs me of my wealth if this happens across the spectrum and I have no choice left and the politicians damn well know this.
I’ve been on minimum wage. In fact, after getting my dd-214 years back, I elected to work for less than minimum wage just to get in the workforce quickly. I knew it was a STARTER gig. It was not meant to support me for a long period and only provided the most basic of basic’s while I got myself trained and began to “job hop” for employment with ever increasing value based on what I could provide. It was simple; I worked hard and put myself in a position that employers wanted to pay me more and more and more for what I could do for them. I in turn was happy to take their money in return for providing my services. We both won and neither party needed to be forced into coughing up something we should not have to based on the position.
The most simple solution for these deprived souls is to quit voting for politicians that want them destitute and start voting for politicians that want to create wealth through a free economy.
-— It’s laughable to assert that you can change the value of a person’s labor via government dictat. -—
Think Sheila Jackson Lee. Nancy Pelosi. Joe Biden...
Another California Dumbass.
At the current min. wage a worker has no purchasing power and is not much use to the economy. In fact they need government help to avoid living on the streets.
Was it really wise to open our markets to China and the rest. Do you really want to see our workers living in dorms or shanty towns? That’s where were headed.
The schools are a big problem, but are irrelevant if their are no jobs anyway.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.